What is Simple Living?

Living away from the hurry of the world, the fast pace, the trends, and its hustling pause and rethink your priorities, creating a gentler rhythm that cultivates peace, intentionality, and enjoying the benefit of being fully alive. This is not about reducing to the maximum, but living with the things that bring you peace and joy. Is loving the present, being conscious, thankful, and responsibly intentional with what we have been given. 

I know, by now you have probably heard enough about this term and probably you could be thinking one of these things: 

• Simple living is life for stay-home moms
• Simple living is the hippie lifestyle 
• Simple living is just for people without money
• Simple living is the perfect cottage life in the middle of the countryside surrounded by wildflowers or animals. 
• Simple living is just getting rid of clutter and becoming a minimalist
• Simple living is just owning less, cutting back, and streamlining all areas of your life

The truth is… simple living is none of those things.  Well, at least not fully.

The simple life is much more holistic than that.

What Simple Living Means

Simple living is living from the inside out. So whether you live in the city, work every day in an office, work at home, on a farm, in politics, or be a doctor. Living this way shows that no matter where you are or what you do, you have the power to transform your days, minimize stress and above all, choose to be at peace within yourself and wherever you go. Step by step, day by day… being the change. 

I remember my life as being in the fast lane, racing to have a lot of things to do. Internally just competing for how busy I was. 

Perhaps, part of this came from my culture or the world in general (unconsciously). If you were having free time and do nothing, you could pass as a lazy person. Of course, no one would like to be known like that, and even when my parents weren’t raising me intentionally in that way, I realized at some point I had that situation going on deep in my heart. Sometimes it felt as if someone were recording my life 24/7. So I had to be doing something, hurrying and non-stopping (even when I was passionate about what I was doing, I wasn’t doing it from a place of rest). 

I remember my early 20s getting so full of things that at some point I went to the cardiologist to check my heart because I was having weird palpitations and that was making me feel scared. Thank God everything was fine with my heart. I learned that overthinking, fear, stress, and living without a pause can take us further. Everything starts in our minds, then our thoughts become actions, and actions become habits. So I stopped things, relationships, and things that I felt I needed to close. 

Living a Simpler Life

I chose to slow down, simplify and focus on the things that are truly important to me and my family. Five years ago I was in Mexico enjoying family, friends, my culture and the warm weather, the long hours of daylight were spent around the table with people and soaking up the sun of Mexico. Then we moved to Spain, and the culture was so similar though we were without family, people and places felt like family right away. It was about slowing down, enjoying the weather, and making the most of what we had. We did it on purpose. It wasn’t easy for me at the beginning, but it was worth it. It was the perfect setting for my British husband. 

So I found myself captivated by this slower, fuss-free way of living… plus also, if you have read part of my story about the last couple of years, to be honest, some of my circumstances took me to be even more intentional about simple living, seeking a more balanced way of doing things (finding perfection in imperfection), gaining more through a conscious and intentional living. 

Figure Out What’s Important In Life

Another moment that consolidated this way of living in me was while my husband was in the hospital having a lot of blood tests. My life suddenly took another pace, a different way of thinking. I was able to notice things I wasn’t noticing around me before, in a very different way. Our breathing, the smiles, the effort of people, the food we eat, the taste, people talking about being famous, things like losing weight, trends, appearance, and about body image concerns. My mind was blown away by all this. 

Simple living focused me on the most important things, which make me feel and keep my peace and joy. Someone said simple living is about what we bring to our personal lives, and homes, are what we consume, how we think, what we buy, and what we build and I agree!

With all this, I’m not saying you have to set apart the world to isolate and stop going after your dreams. I’m talking about changes that can create a gentle rhythm in your days and minimize stress. Exchanging stress for peace. Our heart is beating, our skin is breathing, and we wake up every day. Today, the world has so many routes and luxuries that make life “easier” which is amazing! Yet, on top of that, people still find themselves in a hurry for more despite the stress, illness, debts, or successes. I’m not against self-fulfillment and psychological needs. 

In other words, we are living in a fast-paced world, people get warm food in seconds on a microwave, the tv is filled with hundreds of channels to give information and entertainment, people send texts in seconds and the fact of not getting a reply right away creates some kind of anxiety in some. We can see what is happening on the other side of the world at the same time through videos or photos. People want to know how to use everything and not miss out on anything. The day comes and goes and we have a limit of hours, minutes, and seconds. There is stress as a result of not being able to attend or having everything at the same time.

Simplify Your Life

I get that every culture is different, but we can notice that our world is taking most of us to the same fast-paced living of course if we let it. So, I believe simple living is taking steps away from wastefulness, consumerism, and unhealthy habits. Living consciously. Simple living is being intentional with our choices, is being sustainable and ethical in our way of living.

We are all on different journeys, and I don’t doubt that you can introduce a simple living wherever you are. By making changes in the way that works for you. This is not a goal, this is a lifestyle and a lifelong journey that we have to nurture and take action on every day. So I hope that through this site I can inspire your journey to nurture towards a simpler life and remind you to make time for the things that matter the most in life.

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